Teen Bedroom Ideas (Teen Bedroom Makeover)

For nearly a year, we’ve collaborated on John’s bedroom makeover. I’m so excited to share the reveal with you today and give you some teen bedroom ideas!

We’re so excited to share some teen bedroom ideas! This room has been a long time in the making and I wanted to balance my love for home decor and styling with our 15 year old’s tastes and needs.

One big hurdle is that this room is TINY and he NEEDS lots of stuff in here – desk, dresser, bed, and also wanted to bring in his keyboard.

John (and Max) are thrilled about how the space turned out! Come on in and see!

Before we start the tour, let me share a couple of things you may have missed. John and Conor used to share a bedroom. You can see that here. We decided it would be best for John and Conor to have their own bedrooms with Covid and homeschooling so we did a room swap. You can see Conor’s reveal here and we’re still working on our bedroom. We are all really happy that we swapped rooms. Like many of you, we’ve had to require our spaces to serve multiple functions and also comfort us in these hard times.

Teen Bedroom Makeover – Inspiration

Along the way we’ve shared the process of this bedroom. If you missed it you can see the inspiration here.

John is an artist and launched his illustration company at the age of 14. We have an online shop together. He also is a voracious reader – he loves Stephen King, the classics, poetry etc. You will see his love for books reflected in his bookshelf. John also loves music. He plays the trumpet (started in 7th grade) and in 8th grade he began dabbling with piano. He is also a nature lover and collector (he loves old things, collecting treasures on the beach, and is interested in skulls and bones).

It was my goal as a mom and a designer to fully support him and his desires. You will see him reflected in every nook and crany of this tiny bedroom.

Teen Bedroom Ideas

There is a mix of new and old, nature, lots of pattern and texture in this space.

Mix New and Old

I paired his vintage typewriter and vintage camera with a flat storage file from Ikea. This holds his school supplies and drawings. We actually have several of these in our home because they are great for storage but still look clean.

Use Vertical Space

We used simple picture ledges from Ikea to create a plant display in John’s room. A boring white wall is now given depth making the space actually appear bigger.

John has displayed some of his artwork and vintage treasures:

The crow is Navajo FolkArt by Matthew Yellowman from Native in Scituate Harbor.

We carried out the plants onto the small wall near his closet.

The Wallygro living wall planter and reclaimed redwood propagator are both from Plantsandponytails. We gave the redwood display to John for his birthday to remind him of our trip to California.

Allow light in to make a room feel bigger

These swiss dot curtains (originally in our guest room) are sheer and allow lots of light to come in. This is important as this is the only window in the room.

Add a statement wall

This graphic wallpaper with leaves makes the room appear larger than it is.

I chose this when this was our guest room / my office and told John he could have this room BUT he had to KEEP THE WALLPAPER. He loves it so it wasn’t a problem.

Paint Furniture White to Make Space Feel Bigger

The majority of the furniture in here is white. I painted the dresser a soft white to pop against the wall.

This dresser was originally painted with a Union Flag to celebrate John’s English heritage.

His bedside table is also white. This was the first piece of furniture I ever painted nearly 10 years ago.

Build a Desk

We built John’s desk so we could customize the size for his room.

It’s a Parson’s Table so has hidden drawers and a cable holder for added storage.

See the build plans here.

The pin board is functional and also let’s John display ideas. We used brass hooks to hang from the picture rail.

Shelf Styling that Tells a Story

John is a collector – he collects stories, skulls, nature, cameras, and really anything that looks cool. So much on his bookshelf has a story behind it. For example, the owl was my dad’s paper weight. The statue of liberty is mine from when I was little. It actually has some copper from the statue of liberty when they repaired it.

Add Texture for Visual Interest

His duvet cover and pillow have lovely texture and a ric rac stitch.

I love to layer in soft pillows – those are from Target and our perfect for reading in bed.

The rug is a woven texture but have to tell you it really sheds….

I hope these tips were helpful in thinking about your own teen’s rooms. I will share a full source list at the bottom of the post.

Here’s a few more photos of the space!

Hope you like the space as much as John does! Can’t wait to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let me know! If you need some help in your own home I offer eDesign and in home design consulations.

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Shop the look

Source List

• Wall Color – Simply White by Benjamin Moore
• Wallpaper
• Flat File Storage – Ikea
• Picture Ledges – Ikea
• Navajo FolkArt – Native
• Dresser – Tutorial here
• Bed
• Light – Restoration Hardware Outlet
• Table Lights – Target
• Desk Light – Ikea
• Plants – Kennedy’s, Plantsandponytails, and Lowe’s
• Tan plant holders – Home Depot
• Rug
• Alarm Clock – Ikea
• Duvet Cover Set
• Pin Board
• Wooden Tacks
• Desk – Tutorial here
• Desk Chair – Laura Davidson Direct